Tagged: pride

“I’m working on my mating list for when we have to repopulate the world.” – Tina Belcher

I just wanted to talk about how much I love Tina Belcher, the unsung hero of the fantastic TV show “Bob’s Burgers,” and the character who, against all odds. I most want to be like of anybody in the show.

Tina, the oldest of three Belcher children, is by far the shyest, least publicly confident, and most socially-awkward of the whole Belcher clan. Just look at her natural response to being put on the spot:

But hey, plenty of us are massive introverts like Tina is. I’m one of them. The mere thought of public speaking, although I know I can do it, makes my heart race and my sweat glands open up like the Dutch boy removing his finger from the hole in the dyke. But despite her fear of being publicly shamed, I can’t think of a TV character who is more internally confident about who she is and what she wants. She has immense pride in her obsessions with horses, sexy zombies, rainbows, erotic friend fiction, and most of all, her crush on her the son of her father’s nemesis, Jimmy Jr., and she doesn’t seem to mind what people think of them.

In a really vague and roundabout way, I can relate to Tina (yeah, kind of weird that the TV character I most relate to is a 14 year-old girl, but fittingly enough she does happen to be voiced by a man who’s not a heck of a lot older than I am). I have a multitude of interests of which I am proud, and I know how smart and knowledgeable I am about many things, but these things don’t help me much when the spotlight finds me. Yet, both Tina and I can overcome this apprehension with flying colors when most needed.

Just to reiterate, I love and admire the hell out of Tina Belcher. Her staunch pride in who she is and what she likes is a highly positive trait, and I think for that reason, she’s not only someone I admire, but someone that in a weird way should be looked up to by real-life teenagers.

Because let’s be honest: in our own way, we’re all just as weird as Tina is, but we all could learn a lesson or two about the importance of embracing our weirdness with as much love and pride as Tina does.

“Everyone touched each other’s butt. And it was great.” – Tina Belcher